His and Hers
by Lavender Valentine
Summary: InuKag Oneshot, Kagome's condition has the couple trying to sort out what belongs to whom...a fluffy vignette in the canon universe.


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**Disclaimer:** The characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I'm so happy she doesn't slap us with lawsuits when we want to play with them.

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**Warning:** Excessive fluff.

**Summary:** (One-shot, Inu/Kag) Sorting out what belongs to whom…a fluffy vignette in the canon universe.

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**His and Hers**

Inu-Yasha caught the change in her scent, even before Kagome's feet touched the bottom of the well. His keen nose detected the shift in aroma, and his senses immediately went on the alert. Heart racing, ears pressed flat against his head, he growled and waited for her to climb out of the time slip.

The woman had a _serious_ amount of explaining to do.

It was inconceivable to think that he wouldn't notice the change. Long before he knew her name, knew her forgiving nature, knew _her_ – he knew her smell. Was it not her scent that had greeted him after a fifty-year sleep and brought him scratching and clawing back into a world of pain and betrayal? The pattern of tang and sweet and moisture and warmth that formed her natural perfume was permanently etched into his senses, ingrained into a tessellation that was simply _Kagome_.

To her credit, Kagome didn't attempt to hide her condition. She met his accusing stare head-on, refusing to back down or act ashamed, although Inu-Yasha could tell she was nervous. Even when he snarled angrily and stalked off toward the trees, she followed, knowing he would yell at her.

"How could you let this happen?" Inu-Yasha rasped, finally trusting himself to say something. He didn't dare look at her; staying calm was hard enough. A million different emotions were racing through his tortured mind, but hot fury bubbled to the top. "I knew I shouldn't have let you go back home! Of all the stupid things to do – arrgh!" Claws bared, he turned around to slash at a tree. Damn, but he needed to tear something apart, _destroy_ something!

When the trunk of the hapless sapling was reduced to little more than shavings, Inu-Yasha finally trusted himself to ask her the question burning inside of him. "Who, Kagome?" he ground out between clenched teeth as he turned to face her. "Who's responsible for this?"

He could smell the salt of her tears and hear her tiny sniffles as she struggled to get her emotions under control. Dammit, she _knew_ how much he hated to see her cry! He would much rather have her shout at him, then 'sit' him so hard that his fangs would ache.

She gingerly wrapped her arms around her stomach and folded inward, as if to shield herself from his anger. "I am," Kagome mumbled. "I'm the one who made the decisions that led to this. Nobody forced me to do anything."

"Oh, so you're telling me you did this all on your own?" he spat, waving a hand in the direction of her body. "I'm kind of finding that hard to believe, Kagome!"

"As far as you're concerned, that's what happened!" she choked out, a sob escaping her throat. "I'm not telling you who I was with; you'll just go to my era and cause trouble! He doesn't deserve that!"

Kagome's bald confession pushed him over the edge, and he began to yell. "You idiot, that's why I can't let you out of my sight for a moment, can I?" Inu-Yasha continued to rant, oblivious to the way her back was stiffening in anger. "You're so stupid! There ain't no way we can go shard-hunting with you in this condition, did ya stop to think about that? Like we got time to lie around here waiting for you to–"

"Sit! Sit, sit, _sit_! Geez, Inu-Yasha, I never thought you'd get so bent out of shape over a stupid sunburn!"

And with that, the girl from the future stomped off toward Kaede's village, leaving behind a cursing hanyou. Inu-Yasha managed to pull his face from the dirt and watch her leave, her head held high in spite of her tears. It was a long time before he calmed down enough to drag himself out of the hanyou-shaped crater and join the rest of their companions at Kaede's hut.

**……**

It was late afternoon, and the fading sunlight filtered into Kaede's humble dwelling. There were just the two of them, for the rest of the group had scattered upon receiving Kagome's news. Sango was the first to take advantage of the unexpected delay, announcing her desire to return to her village for a short time. Miroku had chimed in immediately afterward, telling of his plans to see his mentor and foster-parent, the old monk Mushin. Kaede had left to visit a nearby village, assisting with a spring epidemic. She had taken Shippo with her, an action that left Inu-Yasha secretly grateful – he hadn't missed the way Kagome tensed as the kitsune launched toward her body. It was obvious that every motion gave the girl from the future a fresh bout with pain.

"Inu-Yasha?" It was the first time Kagome had spoken directly to him since earlier that day. Her voice was muffled, her face buried in her arms. She was lying on her stomach on top of her puffy sleeping bag, allowing the faint breeze wafting through the open window to ruffle her hair.

"You're supposed to be taking a nap, woman. What's the matter?"

"I can't sleep," Kagome whispered, misery lacing her voice.

With a sigh of resignation, Inu-Yasha left his spot where he was sitting against the wall of the hut and crawled over to her. "You need to get some rest, you know," he said softly as he stretched out beside her. "You're always taking care of everybody but yourself."

"M-maybe I should go back to my own era," Kagome stammered, peeking at him over her pillow. "I'm of no use to anybody here, not in this condition." A telltale bead of moisture leaked from the corner of her eye, and she blinked it away. "Oh, Inu-Yasha," she sniffled. "I'm so sorry – I never meant for this to happen!"

She was crying again, and it tore Inu-Yasha to pieces. "Stop it," he murmured huskily, reaching his roughened finger out to wipe the wet trails from her cheeks. "It's just a sunburn, dammit. Come on now, no more tears."

"But you're so angry with me, and now we have to hang around here instead of looking for the jewel shards," Kagome sobbed.

"Yeah, well as fast as Sango and Miroku lit out of here, I'd say they were ready for a break," Inu-Yasha scoffed. "And I ain't mad at you, Kagome. At least, not like you think I'm mad," he amended. "I'm madder at myself." He hesitated, then plunged forward. "I should have gone home with you – I should have been there to keep this from happening."

She raised her head in shock. "Inu-Yasha, you can't save me from my own stupidity," Kagome reminded him. "I'm the one who decided not to use sunscreen, in spite of knowing the risks! Hojo even said something, and I ignored him – oh, no!" She cringed, having realized she'd revealed too much.

"Cut it out," Inu-Yasha groused, not liking the fearful expression that crossed her face. "I already figured out who you'd been with; I could smell him all over you. It just took me a while to remember the scent." He frowned. "Men in your era don't have much honor, do they? That Hojo idiot should have made sure this didn't happen."

"I'm sure Hojo didn't think any harm would come to me at the beach," Kagome defended the luckless boy. "Besides, women in my era are expected to take care of themselves."

"Well ya ain't doing a very good job of it, if that's the case," the hanyou snorted, but the anger was missing from his voice. Frustrated fury had spent itself out some time ago; all that was left was a sad acceptance. He never could stay mad at her for very long; he supposed it was because he loved her so damn much.

Wait…_loved_ her? Where in the seven hells did _that _thought come from? He didn't love her, he…he _protected_ her, keeping her from becoming just another countless victim of the dangers lurking in his world. He stood by her side in order to stop tragedy from repeating itself, to keep from watching yet another woman die because of Naraku.

But he hadn't always been able to keep her from being hurt, a nagging part of his brain reminded him. Sometimes their enemies landed a blow upon her fragile form, and when they did, it damn near killed him. More than her tears, he hated her pain, and every time she bled, so did his heart. It was pride, Inu-Yasha argued with himself; his pride couldn't accept that he sometimes failed to protect what was his. And Kagome _was_ his - his to defend, his to watch over, his to…

Oh, who was he trying to fool? She was his to _love_, and love her he did, in spite of knowing that it was wrong to do so. It would end in tears, for while she was _his_, he wasn't _hers_. His life belonged to someone else, to another woman he'd failed to protect, and that fact wouldn't change just because Kagome had snuck into his heart.

Her muffled exclamation roused him from his troubled thoughts. "What's the matter?" Inu-Yasha asked, concerned. She'd shoved herself upright, and was now kneeling hunched over, clutching her stomach.

"I feel so sick all of a sudden," Kagome whimpered through clenched teeth. Her face had lost all natural color, taking on a ghastly hue. She groaned and pitched forward, barely giving the surprised hanyou time to catch her.

"Not on me – ugh!" He was too late. Grimacing, he allowed her to finish what she'd started; there was no point in spreading the mess any further. Awkwardly, he patted her head in a feeble attempt to comfort the heaving girl, silently wishing his nose wasn't quite so sensitive.

When Kagome stopped heaving, he carefully hauled her outside to a secluded, tree-lined bend in the river. She refused to look at him the entire time he was cleaning her up, and he knew she was humiliated beyond speech. "It's not the end of the world," Inu-Yasha reminded her as he helped her remove her soiled clothing. "It's happened to you, as many times as you've helped Kaede care for the sick. It's about time you got to throw up on someone, instead of being on the receiving end of it."

"So this is like a cosmic payback?" she said woefully, although a tiny smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. The expression vanished, however, as the cloth of her shirt scraped across the reddened skin of her back. "Easy," she hissed.

She was too ill to put up even a pretense of modesty, Inu-Yasha realized as he finished removing her top. Her breasts were exposed, but he couldn't bring himself to enjoy the view. Not when Kagome was so obviously miserable. He concentrated instead on washing her shirt in the river, then handed it back to her. "No wonder you're puking your guts out; you've probably got some kind of heat sickness. That's the worst sunburn I've ever seen," he scolded. "I thought you had medicine in your era to keep this from happening."

"You have to actually _use_ it in order for it to work," Kagome sighed. Some of the color was returning to her face, and she'd quit trembling. "I'm not going to be able to lie on my back for a week," she groaned as she pulled her toothbrush and toothpaste from the backpack Inu-Yasha had brought along.

"So get used to sleeping on your stomach," Inu-Yasha told her, jumping into the river to wash his own soiled clothing. "And don't brush too hard; you'll just gag yourself all over again."

By the time he'd wrung the last droplets of water from his clothing, Kagome had curled up beneath the shade of a nearby tree and was snoring, the wet toothbrush still clutched in her hand. Inu-Yasha moved to her side, intent on carrying the exhausted girl back to Kaede's hut, but found himself mesmerized by her still form. Kagome had fallen asleep without bothering to put her shirt back on, and there was no way he could pretend not to notice. Her skin looked so soft, so smoothly different from his own, and he suddenly wanted to feel it beneath his calloused palms, slide his tongue against it to see if she tasted as wonderful as she smelled…

"Inu-Yasha?" She had awakened and was blinking at him fuzzily.

"Huh?" He shook himself mentally, trying to clear out his lust-induced paralysis. He briefly contemplated diving back into the cold river, but discarded the idea as being too obvious. "Come on, let's get you back to the hut," Inu-Yasha said gruffly, praying she wouldn't fight him on this. He really didn't think he could muster an argument if she decided to stay there beneath the tree, all beautiful and sleepy-eyed and – he gulped – topless.

He tried not to feel too disappointed when she tied her damp shirt loosely across her chest and staggered to her feet. Knowing she was probably still dizzy, Inu-Yasha eased her onto his back and carried her back to the hut. He deposited her onto the sleeping bag and rummaged through her pack until he found a bottle of water.

"Here, start drinking and don't stop until it's gone," he ordered, pressing the container into her hand, along with a bag of peanuts. "You probably need some salt, too. Kami, woman, these farmers out here have more sense than you do! Don't you know that too much heat will damage weak little girls?" he added, his anger resurfacing. He'd seen what could happen when humans let themselves become overheated – the foolish woman could have _died_, staying out in the sun and frying her brains…

"I'm sorry that us 'weak little girls' are such trouble," Kagome snapped at him. She turned her head away with a tiny 'hmph!' and drank her water in hurt silence. "No one asked you to take care of me, you know," she stated as she handed him the empty bottle. "Leave me alone if it's such a bother."

_Shit_. He'd opened his mouth and hurt her feelings, and even worse, she still didn't _get it_. Kagome didn't have the faintest idea as to why he was so upset. Hell, she probably thought he was still mad about losing time better spent collecting jewel shards!

His ears flattened against his head as he gave a soft growl of frustration. "You don't have the slightest idea what's going on," Inu-Yasha huffed, gently pushing her down so she was lying on her stomach. "Where's that goop Kaede-baba made for your sunburn?"

She pointed to a bowl sitting by the fire. Inu-Yasha grabbed it, cringing at the smell that rose up from the glop when he stirred it with a cautious claw. The initial odor was pretty rank, but the aroma seemed to fade quickly. Still holding the bowl, he knelt down beside Kagome and scooped up a handful of the slippery concoction.

The bright red skin on her back made him wince when he thought of touching it. "Tell me if this starts to hurt too much," Inu-Yasha warned Kagome. "There ain't no way I can put this slop on you without causing some pain, but I'll try to go easy."

Her response made his head reel. "Do what you have to do, Inu-Yasha. I trust you."

_I trust you._ The words made his gut clench, and his hands shook as he began to apply the soothing salve to her sunburned back. Maybe she _did_ get it; maybe she understood what he couldn't seem to find the words to say.

Inu-Yasha had smoothed a thin layer of the salve over her reddened back and was working his way down the side of her shoulders when Kagome suddenly tensed. She stretched out her arm and knocked the bowl away, spattering the contents across the floor. "Stop it!" she yelled, surprising him with the anger in her voice.

_What brought this on? _His first concern was that he had been too rough, and he snatched his goop-covered hands away from her back. "What?" he asked, confused at her sudden shift in moods.

She was back on her knees, her hands fisted at her sides as she rocked back and forth. "No more," Kagome ground out, staring at the floor. "Hojo was right; this can't continue! My heart just can't take it anymore!"

"Hojo?" Inu-Yasha snarled. "What does that idiot have to do with anything?" Ugly jealousy flared within him at the implied intimacy in Kagome's statement. How close was she to the boy from her time, anyway?

Closer than he'd wanted to believe, apparently. "Hojo said the light in my eyes was dying," Kagome whispered. "He said that every time he sees me, I act like I'm not really there. He told me –" her voice caught, "he told me that it was clear that I was pining for someone, and that someone obviously wasn't him. And I couldn't deny it." She slumped back down to the sleeping bag. "I promised to stay by your side, Inu-Yasha, but it's killing me to know that I'll never be anything other than your shard detector."

Inu-Yasha had no idea how to respond. His mouth flapped open and shut a few times as he digested what she was saying to him. "That's how it's been all along," he finally managed to work out. "Why is it so hard all of a sudden?"

She propped her head on her arms. "You're being so nice to me," Kagome sighed. "The way you're taking care of me, being so gentle and tender – it makes it too easy to close my eyes and pretend you love me." A sad frown marred her normally happy features. "And when I come back to reality, it _hurts_. Go back to yelling at me and telling me how stupid I am, Inu-Yasha. That hurts me too, but at least I won't be fantasizing about something I can never have."

Not for the first time, Inu-Yasha felt like he was being ripped in half. He hated knowing he was the cause of Kagome's pain, but how could he possibly do justice to the girl from the future without short-changing the girl from the past? And the look on Kagome's face told him that this time, things were different. She was truly ready to leave him…maybe not physically, because he knew Kagome would not abandon her responsibilities toward finding the jewel shards, but certainly she would leave him emotionally. After all, how much more could he ask her heart to bear?

Fear that he was losing her forever choked him, forcing him to plead for her understanding. "Kagome, I can give you protection, but it's all I can give," Inu-Yasha told her, willing her to see the feelings he wasn't free to express. He wanted her to _get it_, to know how badly he wanted things to be different between them. "It's _all I can give_," he repeated fiercely. "There's nothing else I have the right to offer."

She didn't respond immediately, leaving him to believe his efforts were in vain. An awkward silence swelled between them, making the air of the hut seem stifling. Inu-Yasha was about to leave for the comfort and safety of the forest when Kagome's question stopped him.

"Inu-Yasha?" Kagome spoke so quietly he almost didn't hear her. "What do you own?"

"Huh?" Inu-Yasha tried to follow her train of thought, but gave it up almost immediately. "What are you talking about, woman?"

"What do you call your own?" She plucked restlessly at the sleeping bag. "If someone wanted to take an inventory of what belonged to you, what would you answer?"

"Um…" He thought for a moment. "My clothes…my sword…"

"Your sword is my protection, so that doesn't belong to you," Kagome pointed out. "And as for your clothes, if I needed them, you'd hand them over, too. You've done that for me lots of times."

"Yeah…" He had no idea where she was going with this.

"So what you're telling me is…everything you could possibly give to me, you _would_ give me. Am I right?"

She _got it_. He sagged with relief. "Yes," Inu-Yasha said. "Everything I have, I would give you."

Kagome slipped her tiny hand beneath his own. "What about your heart, Inu-Yasha? Not your soul or your life; those belong to Kikyo. But your heart…is there a part of it you can give to me? Just a small part?"

He swallowed. "It's already yours," he confessed, curling his strong fingers around her soft palm. His hand was still covered in drying goop, but she didn't seem to care. "Most of it, anyway…the part that didn't get stuck with an arrow."

The girl from the future blinked a few times, obviously startled that he'd so readily admit to loving her. She pushed herself to her knees. "That will have to be enough, then," Kagome said, slowly wrapping her arms around him.

"It shouldn't be enough," Inu-Yasha murmured, cradling Kagome's head gently between his two large hands. He wanted to crush her tightly against him, but remembered her sunburn and settled for resting his forehead against hers. "You deserve more than a hanyou who can't even promise you tomorrow."

"Just give me whatever time we have left," Kagome begged. "Give me something to hold onto when all of this is done. Don't leave me with just a handful of bitter memories, Inu-Yasha."

He would never be worthy of her. How was it possible that someone like Kagome could love him this much? Inu-Yasha covered her mouth with his own, his kiss both tender and possessive at the same time. She tasted of peanuts and something sweet and uniquely Kagome-like, and he closed his eyes in pleasure as she returned the kiss with an enthusiasm he hadn't dared to anticipate.

"You asked me what was mine," he said huskily, nipping at her lower lip. "_You_ are, Kagome. _You're_ mine. I just wish I could be yours."

"If you've truly given me your heart, then that part of you _is_ mine," Kagome reminded him, twining her fingers in his hair and pushing him on his back. She crawled on top of him, raining soft kisses along his chest and neck. "And until the time comes for you to pay your debts, the other parts of you are on loan to me as well. Got that?"

There was no way in hell he was going to argue with that assessment, not with his sweet Kagome nibbling his jaw and stroking his ears. He tasted and teased her, until the heat radiating from her back forced him to recall her current condition. "Kagome…your sunburn… " he groaned.

"Best thing that ever happened to me," Kagome assured him, her breath coming in short little gasps.

Inu-Yasha was forced to agree. Banishing all other concerns to some undefined point in the future, he captured her mouth once more. His, hers, his, hers…it all tangled up somewhere, and he'd be damned if he was going to spend the precious time they had together trying to sort it all out.

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**A/N:** Did I just do Canon Inu/Kag schmoop? The apocalypse is imminent; everyone take cover – everyone except for ChibiHorsewoman, that is. According to the terms of her dare, she now owes me a Sess/Kagome fic…

And thanks to TitianWren for the beta-job. I hope she doesn't get cavities from reading this.


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